The Killer Among Us
by Kitiara Raistlin
Summary: The BAU team is locked in their office with a killer...but he's not the one slowly killing people off. Who among them is the killer?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: There is Character Death in this story, more then one. Also, for obvious reasons at least one member of the team is *very* OOC. Actually several probably are, since I'm not very good at writing in character, particularly Garcia. I'm *extremely* bad at Garcia, I can't write her for the life of me._

_This is just supposed to be a fun murder mystery, not meant to be taken seriously. Obviously, none of this would ever happen :-) And it definitely takes some suspension of belief._

_I also take some liberties with the layout of the office. I don't know all the rooms there, or if Garcia's office is on that floor or not. In this story, I assumed not._

Chapter One

It was late, almost eleven, Reid yawn and stretched, rubbing his neck. He checked his watch and sighed.

It'd been a long day, and an even longer case. So many people dead...but they had the killer. Malcolm Richards was in the interrogation room, giving his confession to Hotch and Rossi, or at least having it drawn out of him. Hopefully Hotch would let them write up the last of the reports tomorrow.

Across from him Morgan was staring blearily into a cup of de-caf. Prentiss had gone into JJ's office in hopes a brief chat might wake herself up a bit.

Reid had high hopes they would all be allowed to go sleep soon. He was very wrong.

The elevator doors opened.

"Hey baby girl," said Morgan, yawning and waving as Garcia entered the office. "What do you want?"

"I'm looking for Kevin."

"And not me? I'm deeply hurt."

"Oh don't worry, maybe I can make a little time for you tomorrow night," she grinned. "But Kevin was supposed to come by my office an hour ago. No sign. I thought maybe it he ended up here somehow?"

"I haven't seen him, if he doesn't show up maybe I can take the date?"

"In your dreams."

Morgan sat up a little straighter. He could tell from her voice that Garcia was genuinely worried and trying to hide it. "An hour is only an hour. Traffic, flat tire, any little thing could delay him."

"Yes," said Garcia smiling, "I guess when you work at a job like this an hour feels like it has dire consequences." She sighed as she pulled out her phone, and tried to ring Kevin.

Hotch and Rossi emerged from the interrogation room.

"Well?" asked Prentiss, she and JJ also coming out.

"We're got the confession, I'll call someone to come down and get him. I think we can finish the reports in the morning," said Hotch, "We could all use some sleep."

They gathered their bags, their coats and jackets and started heading for the exit as a group. As they reached the elevator, Garcia once again half-heartedly tried Kevin's number. She waited a minute and then hung up as the elevator doors opened.

"Wait a second," said Morgan, "Try it again."

Looking at him curiously, Garcia tried again. Morgan slowly started towards the stairwell. The others, who had waited, followed. As they approached the door they could all hear it. A cell phone ringing. Morgan glanced at Hotch who nodded in understanding, and took a hold of Garcia's arm, and stood in front of her a little to block her view, as Derek opened the door and looked down the stairs.

Lying at the bottom of a staircase, lay Kevin, surrounded by blood.

"Oh..." JJ said breathlessly.

Garcia pulled away from Hotch long enough to see, and then with one piercing scream, fainted dead away. Morgan grabbed her, as Dave ran down the stairs, and bent over Kevin. Just looking at him it was clear the man was dead but Rossi still hopelessly checked his pulse. He then examined the wounds. Kevin had clearly been stabbed to death, multiple times.

Standing up, he headed back up the stairs.

x-x-x-x-x

Garcia was laid out on the couch in Hotch's office, and Hotch went to phone the police. JJ and Emily sat down next to her, ready for when she woke up. In the room next door Reid, Morgan and Rossi sat, talking.

"He was supposed to be here an hour ago," said Morgan. "How could he have been killed? In the BAU? I mean, what kind of maniac kills someone here, he had to have known he'd get caught, he had to have known the camera would pick it up."

x-x-x-x-x

In the conference room, Rossi reached for the phone and dialed a number. He waited for a minute. "No answer up at security, I'm going to go check on them." He left quickly.

"It had to have been someone with at least a visitor's badge," said Reid, "No one else would have been allowed in this part of the building."

Morgan nodded mutely.

"Do you the think Garcia is going to be alright?" asked Reid after a pause.

Morgan did not respond directly, instead he stood up, said, "I'm going to go check on her." And left the room.

x-x-x-x-x

"The police are on their way," said Hotch, placing the phone back down.

JJ nodded.

"Poor Garcia," said Prentiss, softly, almost to herself, "Poor Kevin."

"Hotch," said JJ, looking up at him, "Rossi keeps a bottle of scotch in his desk, doesn't he?"

"Yes, why?"

"I think Penelope might need it, when she wakes up."

"Go get it."

JJ rose and left.

Silence filled the room. Heavy silence. A clock on the wall ticked. Aaron had never realized how loud that dang clock was until now. Garcia's chest rose and fell in blissful unconsciousness.

"I know we've seen a lot of things," spoke Emily softly, "A lot of things that in someways are way more awful then what we saw tonight. But when it's someone you know..."

"It's different." Hotch nodded. His hand reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He looked at it for a long minute.

"Go," said Prentiss, looking at him. "Call Hayley, I can be here alone with her."

Nodding, and giving a curt thank-you, Hotch left the room.

x-x-x-x-x

_Fifteen minutes later..._

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"What is that?" Rossi, looked out from the conference room.

"It's the police," said Morgan, cocking his head to one side. "I never knew them to be so polite and knock."

Three uniformed officers, where banging on the glass doors that lead to the main hall.

The team all headed down the steps. Hotch reached the doors first and tried to open them. He paused, and then pulled again. He frowned.

"They're locked...they weren't locked before."

One of the police men made a gesture of impatience, and Hotch shrugged back at them.

"They can't be locked," said JJ, "We just used them twenty minutes ago. Who would have locked them?"

Rossi sighed.

"What?" asked Morgan sharply.

"Ten minutes ago they were unlocked," he corrected. "I went up to check the security cameras, see if the guards on duty had seen anything."

"And?"

"There was no one there."

"Where were they?" asked Hotch.

Thump. The police officer had realized he'd lost their attention and was trying again.

Rossi waved him aside. "I don't know. I saw no sign. But the police were coming, so I came back down and thought I'd let them investigate for a change."

Hotch looked back at the doors, and sighed. He really didn't want to do this, but he didn't see another alternative. He dialed Strauss.

Erin Strauss stretched, stood and headed for the door. It was time to go home. Far too late to get anymore work done. She called up the elevator, and had just stepped in and pressed lobby, when her cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller idea and sighed in annoyance. If Aaron Hotchner was actually willing seeking out a chance to talk to her...it couldn't be good news. She answered.

"Strauss, it's Hotchner."

"Yes. I know. What do you want?"

"We have a problem."

"What is it?"

"Well...first off Kevin Lynch is dead."

"What? How?"

"He was murdered in the stairwell."

"Wait..._the_ stairwell? As in _our_ stairwell?"

"Yes."

"Have you called the police?'

"Yes, they're here, only there's a problem."

"What is it?"

"We're locked in."

"How did you manage that?"

"We don't know. But the glass doors are locked and the key's missing."

Strauss sighed, as the elevator stopped and the doors opened out onto the lobby. "I'll call the janitors. I'll be right up." She pressed a floor button and leaned again the wall tiredly, as the elevator doors slid closed. _Perfect,_ she thought bitterly.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Dave chortled. Aaron glanced over at him. "What so funny?" he asked.

Dave nodded towards Strauss, who was standing past the glass doors, talking to one of the policemen, the other two were down the stairwell. "It's kind of nice having locked, bullet-proof doors between us."

Hotch smiled.

Prentiss came down the stairs and towards the two men. "Penelope woke up."

"How is she?" asked Hotch.

Prentiss shrugged. "She wanted to be alone. I gave her some Scotch."

"Where did you get Scotch?" asked Dave, raising an eyebrow at her.

"JJ got it from your office. The bottle you've got hidden in the desk."

"She did, did she?" Rossi, raised an eyebrow towards JJ's office, to where the woman had retreated.

"Any word on the door?" Prentiss asked, nodding towards it.

"Janitors are trying to track down a key."

"Great. I think as soon as Garcia can get out of the building the better...she refused to even talk to Morgan when he came in."

"Where are Reid and Derek?" asked Hotch.

"Conference room."

The attention of the three were drawn to the hall outside as the elevator doors opened and a detective came through. He walked up to the door and tried it. He was just trying to make a gesture to the BAU agents to open it, when Strauss came up to him and there was a moment of conversation. The man gestured towards the office. Strauss pulled out her cell phone, and Hotch's phone rang. He answered.

"This man says he's here to take a man called Malcolm Richards," she began at once.

"Well that man 'll have to wait. Richards is the unsub of the case we're been working on. He's being held in the interrogation room. Until that door is opened..."

Strauss nodded and hung up.

"I forgot about Richards," said Prentiss.

"He murdered five women, he can wait a couple of hours," said Rossi.

"The guy guarding him from the observation room though is probably getting a little tired. I'll offer to relieve him for a little while." Emily walked away.

"How do you think it happened anyways," asked Rossi, "With the door?"

"No idea. One of us must have locked it by accident."

"And lost the key, _by accident_?" Rossi raised an eyebrow.

Aaron shrugged. "You tell me, you were the last one through that door."

"Hey, it was unlocked when I came back through."

Emily's yell came splitting through the air. "Get in here!"

As one, the two agents drew their guns and rushed to the observing room. As they pushed through the door, they stopped dead in their tracks. Emily was standing over a dead body, and the interrogation room on the other side of the one-way mirror...was empty.

Hotch swore.

Rossi quickly bent down and examined the FBI agent's body. "He's been stabbed."

"Like Kevin," said Hotch.

"But we had Malcolm in custody when Kevin was killed," pointed out Emily.

"He's armed," commented Rossi.

"What?" asked Hotch.

"The agent's gun is missing."

"And there's a good chance he's locked in this section with us...we need to gather everyone together in the conference room..._Now!_"

x-x-x-x-x

"What?" demanded Strauss.

"Malcolm's escaped."

"How?"

"We're not sure yet," responded Hotch's voice over the phone. "But we think he has a weapon."

"This has really been your night Agent Hotchner," remarked Erin dryly, "First you lock yourselves in your office and next you have an unsub escape."

"That's not everything."

"There's really more?"

"He killed an agent."

There was a long pause. "Is it possible he killed Lynch?"

"No. It's not. We had him in custody during that time."

"Alright."

"It is possible he locked us in here though."

"So you think he's left the building already?"

"I don't know. You should contact the security and put them on full alert, along with the police."

"I know how to do my job Agent Hotchner, something you can't really say tonight." She hung up.

x-x-x-x-x

"Garcia should be in here," said Rossi, sitting down at the round conference table, "We don't know whether Malcolm escaped before or after the doors were locked, this area could be very dangerous."

"Morgan's sitting with her, she's sleeping," explained JJ, "I think that's probably best."

"What I don't understand is how Richards could escape," said Emily, shaking her head, "He was handcuffed to the table."

"There are quite a few ways to get out of handcuffs," said Reid, "Breaking one's wrists, picking the lock with a paper clip, pick-pocketing the key. Also-"

"Yeah but the guy was being watched, I mean doesn't it strike anyone else as weird that Agent Eastlake wasn't found dead in the interrogation room as if he'd gone to try and stop Richards. If Richards had done any of those things to get out of the cuffs, Eastlake would have had plenty of time to stop it."

Rossi shrugged. "It's late, maybe Eastlake was sleeping on the job."

"Carl was very junior but he was a good agent. He wouldn't have fallen asleep."

"What about the camera?'

"Camera?" Hotch turned to Rossi.

"Yes, whatever happened should have been recorded by the camera in there. We just go, play the tape, we can see what happened."

"If Richards is locked in here with us, that could be dangerous."

"And if he's not we're being paranoid for nothing. We have guns too."

"Two of us could go down and check it out," shrugged Emily. "Two against one, Richards is a cowards and grabbed women when they were off their guard and drunk and therefore not as able to fight back. I don't think he'd be very likely to try two fully trained agents with guns."

"Alright. You and Reid go down and check. But quickly. Until we know where this guy is I want us all to stick close."

"Understood sir." Emily and Reid stood up and left, drawing their guns out."

"I don't know how this could have happened Dave," said Hotch, "I mean something doesn't feel right."

"You mean more so then normal when two people are killed?"

"Yes. Something is off here...very off. I don't know what it is, but I feel like somebody is one step ahead of us here...I'm calling Strauss, I want to know what's keeping the darn janitor." He pulled out his phone and dialed. The second she answered he snapped into it. "Where's that key?..._Misplaced?_ How could they-...what?...every other one? Are they sure?" His voice grew quieter. "...I see...alright...how long is that supposed to take?...oh, alright...yeah, we will be." He hung up.

"What did she say?"

"The Janitor's spare key to the office is missing."

"Missing?"

"Every other key is exactly where it should be, except this one."

'They think someone took it ahead of time?" guessed Rossi.

Hotch nodded. "Strauss has called a locksmith to come get the door open, but it's going to take him at the very least an hour to get here...she says to be careful."

"I agree. And I guess you're right. Someone does seem to be one step ahead of us."

Shots rang out. Aaron and Hotch drew their guns and ran out of the room. The just barely saw a man feeling down a back room, with Emily and Reid shooting after him. Hotch burst into a run after the man ,as Morgan, who had just emerged from Hotch's office, followed.

Rossi hurried down the stairs, over to Emily and Reid. He noticed as he approached that Spencer was clutching his right arm.

"Are you alright?" Rossi asked, as he reached them.

"It's not bad," said Spencer, dropping his hand to examine the wound which was beginning to soak blood through his shirt.

"What happened?"

"We were just coming out into the hall, when Richards started shooting at us, I think he'd been hiding in the Men's Bathroom," explained Prentiss. "He caught us by surprise and got one good shot in, that's how he hit Reid, Reid was in front. We shot back but I don't think we got him."

"Come on, let's get back to the conference room, and see what we can do about that."

As they walked up the stairs, they heard a thump on the locked glass doors. Rossi turned to look and saw Strauss had banged on the door with her fist. She made a questioning gesture. She looked _really_ mad. Dave grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

x-x-x-x-x

"There, that should help for a little while," said JJ, as she finished applying the first aid to Reid's arm. "At least until the locksmith gets here."

"Thank-you."

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"It's fine. Really I was lucky. Statistically speaking gun shot wounds are usually-"

"_Don't_ give me the statistics," snapped Prentiss, she sighed and said more gently, "I'm sorry Reid I'm just...on edge here."

Reid nodded and fell silent.

Hotchner and Morgan entered the room.

"You didn't get him," said Rossi, looking at their faces.

"He got back in that storage room at the end of the back hall," said Morgan, "No way to track him through all those boxes and shelves and it wasn't safe."

"We locked the door, but it's a pretty bad lock, and we know he picked at least two of them, to kill some of his victims, so that shouldn't hold him for long if he wants to get out."

"We stay here then," said Dave, "Until the they get the doors opened."

Hotch's cell phone rang. He sighed and pulled it out, commenting, "Strauss has been ringing since those shots went off." He flipped it open. "Hotch."

"Would you mind trying to explain how it is I tell you to make sure your team is careful in there and then literally a minute later, two of your agents get into a gun fight!"

"They were checking the recording from the interrogation room to see if they could figure out how Malcolm managed to escape and kill Eastlake."

"Did they find anything?"

Hotch held the phone away and repeated the question to Prentiss and Reid.

"No," said Emily, "The tape had been removed."

Hotch frowned and relayed the message to Strauss.

"That doesn't make sense," said the director. "The suspect would have no reason to do that...be careful. Be _very_ careful. Actually careful this time. There's something not right here."

"Ask her to check on the camera for the building," said Rossi, "She can find out why the guards weren't there when I went up."

Hotch nodded, and repeated the request to Strauss.

"Alright, I'll send a man up, but you stay together. And stay away from Richards. We'll get him when the doors are opened. Is Agent Reid alright?"

"He's fine. Small wound but nothing serious."

"Alright then. I'll call back later. There is going to be a full-scale inquiry into this whole mess Agent Hotchner." She hung up.

"What did she say?" asked Rossi.

"There's going to be a full-scale inquiry."

"Oh that should make her happy. In all my time as a profile, I've learned that there's nothing a director loves as much as a full scale inquiry."

Reid laughed.

"What about Garcia?" asked JJ, standing up suddenly alarmed. "We've left her alone."

The team as a whole, hurried into Hotch's office. Garcia lay peacefully sleeping on the sofa.

"We can stay in here in here," said Rossi, sitting down at the chair next to the couch. "Watch over her."

Hotch took a seat at his desk, Morgan slid down the wall and sat on the floor as Emily and JJ sat with their backs against Hotch's desk and Reid took the remaining chair.

A minute ticked slowly by, and then another, and then...

"No..." murmured Rossi. He stood up and approaching the sofa, leaned over Penelope.

"What's wrong?" asked JJ, alarmed.

Rossi shook Garcia. The woman did not wake. He reached for her wrist and held it for a moment. He then gently lowered it back down.

"She's dead."

The room stood still for a moment, as if the world had just stopped moving through time, and then it seemed to explode. Morgan let out a noise between a growl and yell, and leaping to his feet, rushed out of the room, pulling his gun. Hotch, in a moment of uncharacteristic loss of control, pushed his computer off the desk and it fell to the floor with a crash. Emily leaped to her feet, JJ gave a small cry of emotional pain, and Emily and Reid just sat there, staring at Garcia's body.

"Derek!" Hotch yelled after him. He leapt to his feet with a curse, pulled out his gun, and ran after the agent.

"Was she stabbed?" asked Emily quietly.

"No," said Rossi, shaking his head, "She wasn't."

x-x-x-x-x

Hotch ran through the back hall and into the storage room. He could see Morgan standing just feet to the left, and slowing down Hotch approached him.

"Derek we need to..." His voice fell. He looked at the body lying at Morgan's feet. But Malcolm Richards' had not been shot...he had been stabbed. Morgan looked up at Hotch in complete shock.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

They sat at the conference table, a dead silence hanging over them. Each looking steadfastly at their hands.

Hotch's cell phone rang breaking harshly through the silence. He pulled it out quickly and answered it.

"Hotch...thank-you...what?...I see...thank-you." He hung up. "Dave, that was the director. The security guards who should have been watching the camera when Kevin was killed? They were just found dead and stuffed in a closet...the tapes are also missing from that time."

Rossi nodded. "Alright then. We have to face facts. The two options are there's either someone still in here with us or..."

"Or what Dave?"

"Let's save that option till we know if we're alone or not."

"Maybe we should wait," said JJ, "Until they get the doors open."

"Someone killed Garcia," said Morgan angrily, standing to his feet, "I'm going to find them."

"Alright," said Hotch. "You and I will go check the storage room again, Emily will come with us and watch the door, make sure no one slips in or out. JJ, Dave and Reid will check all the offices, bathrooms, everything. And _no one_ wanders off on their own. You hear me?"

They all nodded and got to their feet.

x-x-x-x-x

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

x-x-x-x-x

"There's no one here," said Emily as she, Hotch and Morgan entered the conference room where the others were waiting. The three sat down at the table, next to the other two, and JJ came over from the window and took a seat quietly.

"We looked everywhere too," said Rossi. "No one."

"Alright, then where does that leave us?" asked Hotchner.

"It leaves us with the undeniable facts. Someone took the security tapes, twice, the same action. Richards couldn't have taken the one from the building or killed Kevin, and he had no reason to take it from here. Someone killed Richards the same way Kevin was killed and Agent Eastlake. Penelope wasn't stabbed, strangled or shot...there is no outward sign of what could have killed her, making the most likely cause of death poison. Which also clears Richards. The only exit is securely locked with policemen on the other side and the doors are glass, so even if someone had poisoned Garcia, the officers or Strauss would have seen them entering Hotch's office. And there is no one else in here...with us. There is only _us_."

"No," Morgan said flatly. "No. Uh-uh."

"What?" asked Prentiss.

"He's saying one of us did this!"

"Statistically-"

"Shut up Reid!" yelled Morgan. "This isn't statistics! I know everyone of you. We're profilers. We _know_ each other. And no one here would ever- not Penelope- not-" He collapsed into a chair and buried his face in his hands.

"We don't profile each other," said Reid. "Remember?"

"I don't see any other possibility," said Rossi. "No one else is here."

"Maybe we missed a room," pointed out Prentiss.

"There's not really that many rooms on this side of the glass doors. And again, Strauss is on the other side, police officers are on the other side, they would have seen someone else moving around, killing people."

"Alright let's say, for a moment, you're right," said Hotch, "What are we saying? Someone killed Kevin, locked the doors, killed Eastlake, let out Malcolm, killed Malcolm...and killed Garcia. Why?"

"Why? How many killers have we seen in our time? They almost always have a why. There are a thousand possible 'why's."

"But why let out Malcolm just to kill him?" asked JJ.

"Distraction?" asked Morgan.

"Alright. Who could have locked the doors?" asked Rossi. "We don't know exactly when Kevin was killed, so let's start with the doors, there's a very limited ten minute time frame."

"Ten minutes?" asked Morgan, "We don't know you're not the one that locked the doors, I say it's twenty."

"Fair enough. Alright. Twenty minutes," conceded Rossi. "I admit I used the doors. We were all together though, after we found Kevin, so maybe we can exonerate someone. Who, at any point between finding Kevin, and us discovering the doors were locked, at any point was alone?" Everyone raised their hands with the exception of Emily.

"So much for narrowing it down," murmured Hotch.

"I went to Rossi's office," said JJ.

"I wasn't alone," said Prentiss seriously, "But I was with Garcia, so I don't have a witness to that."

"I went to call Hayley," said Hotch.

"Where did you make the call?" asked Rossi.

"The bathroom."

"Reid and Prentiss speculated Malcolm was hiding in there."

"It was either before he was let out, or he was hiding in one of the stalls. I didn't look that closely."

"How long were you there?"

"Only a couple of minutes."

"Alright, Reid where did you go?" asked Rossi.

"Nowhere. Right after you left me and Morgan in the conference room, Morgan left, so I just sat there till the police came."

"Morgan?"

Derek sighed. "I actually went to get a glass of your Scotch. I needed a drink."

Rossi raised an eyebrow. "People seem to think that Scotch is fair game."

Morgan shrugged "No one saw me. I thought I was going to get away with it. Wasn't counting on being a suspect for murder again so soon.""

"So every single one of us could have locked the doors, killed Eastlake and let out Richards," said Hotch.

"What about Penelope? When was she killed?"

"She woke up after the police came," shrugged JJ.

"Someone could have given her an injection," said Reid.

Hotch sighed, and standing up began to pace. "The best thing we can do now is just all stay in this room till those doors are unlocked. Then hand this over to the police."

"You're probably right," agreed Rossi.

Bang! The explosion deafened them, several of the agents leaped to their feet pulling their guns, Spencer and JJ, the two on either side of Rossi, were sent sprawling to the floor, wood splinters flew through the air. Blood stained the floor. David Rossi lay motionless.

"Dave!" Hotch leaped towards him and knelt down. "The first aid kit now!" He yelled over his shoulder. "Dave look at me! Dave!"

Prentiss rushed over with the kit. Hotch flipped it open and started to rummage through it. Morgan dropped to the floor on the other side of Rossi, and reached out a hand. He lifted an eyelid, felt for a pulse, and then looked up gravely.

"He's dead."

x-x-x-x-x

"How did it happen?" asked Strauss quietly. She could hear the strain in Hotch's voice, even over the phone.

"Someone, got a bomb in here. It was very contained. No one else was badly hurt."

"So whoever did it, probably targeted him on purpose?"

"I don't know. Morgan is looking at the what's left of the bomb. It was on a remote control. Which we've found thrown under the table."

"But that means-"

"Someone on the team did this."

There was long silence. "I have to call you back," Strauss said abruptly, and hung up. She sunk down onto a low bench. She had often had reservations about the team, at one time or another thinking some of them were not fit for duty, and she had lost faith Hotch long ago, but never, never had she thought this could happen. It really _had_ hit the fan now, hadn't it?

x-x-x-x-x

"How could anyone get a bomb in here?" asked Reid.

Morgan was examine the pieces he had spread out on the conference table. "It's a pretty simple one," he said. "If whoever did this had been planning it for awhile...plus it's small. It would been easy to sneak in the pieces on at a time, if you did it over a long enough period. And at some point this evening, when we've been coming back and forth in here, they could slipped in under a chair."

"So you think that they didn't target Rossi on purpose? It was random?"

Morgan shrugged.

"Maybe they hid it somewhere in this room, and then placed it under Rossi's chair after he sat down?" suggested Reid, "He could still have been the intended target."

"I think one of us would have seen that," pointed out Prentiss.

"So you think they didn't care, as long as it got someone on the team?"

"I think the entire team's the target, I don't think it matters to them if Rossi died now, or later. But why though? I mean everyone on this team," said Prentiss, "Has been here at least a couple years now. Why start killing now?"

"They've clearly thought it out very thoroughly," said Morgan, "They waited till we had a case like this, that kept us late, so there'd be less people around. They thought to take the spare keys from the janitors. They knew Kevin was coming, they counted on that to bring us all back in here, and give them a chance to lock the doors, _with Penelope inside as well_. They wanted this strictly after hours. Then they killed Eastlake, and freed Malcolm."

"It split our focus and our attention and they were counting on that. They could have used that to assemble the bomb and kill Garcia," said Hotch.

"And they waited for the right unsub. Malcolm was perfect. He's hide on us, but he'd also trust his savior. They thought about this. They spent time," said Morgan.

"But why would whoever it is, kill Richards? Why not use him as an ally?" commented Prentiss.

"Too dangerous maybe? Richards might get caught, and he'd sell out whoever it was in a heartbeat."

"Or maybe they thought they didn't need an ally?" mused JJ.

"Very true," said Reid, "Normally when we've had an unsub that's put this much thought into their murders, they're convinced they're mentally unmatched by everyone. They tend to look down on those around them as intellectually sub par.."

"So they used Malcolm and then threw him away," said Prentiss. There was a long silence as everyone thought of this.

"You know, in a certain way of looking at it," said Reid, "They're trying to play us 'at our own game' so to speak."

"What do you mean?" asked Morgan.

"Well we stop serial killers. That's what we do. We're trained for it. And whoever is committing all these murders has seen us do it countless times, has done it with us even. By trying to kill us off one by one like this, they're essential making the statement that they're better then us, smarter, superior profilers. They're taunting us, saying they can't not only get away with murder, but _our_ murders, and there's nothing we, BAU profilers who have caught countless of killers, can do to stop them. If Rossi was targeted as the next victim on purpose, that's probably why. They're saying not even famous David Rossi can stop them. They're saying they're better then all of us, together or separate, and they want us to know it. This entire night has been a statement as much as it is an act."

Everyone in the room exchanged glances, studying each other. Hotch scrapped back his chair and stood up.

"Well that's where they're wrong. Because we _will_ stop them. Whoever it has already killed two members on this team, and multiple agents," said Hotch angrily, he began to pace. When he spoke again his voice was deadly dangerous. "And whichever one of us it is..._we are going to find them_."

_Author's Note: The next chapter will be the last, so if you care enough about the story to have a suspect, now tis the time :-)_


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Thank-you everyone so, so much for all the kind reviews. They really met a lot. _

_And wow, Gothic-Romantic99 the fact that you clearly spent time thinking it all through, means a whole lot! And mindspsychoaddict for reviewing each chapter and stefi! And everyone else! And I'm going to stop now :-)_

_Just thanks so, so much everyone, and hope the solutions don't dissapointtoo much. _

Chapter Four

Reid wanted to laugh. It was absurd. He'd gone through so much with Tobias, and the days he'd spent over coming his addiction had felt endless, and growing up with his mother, or that night on the football field...but this, this was literally the worst night of his life. And he knew the full emotional impact of it was being largely dulled by the shock.

Hotch stood, his back to the door, surveying the room and his team. His team...it didn't feel like his team anymore. He cleared his throat.

"Alright," he said, "Does anyone else have anything to add?" Silence. "Alright. We all have the basic facts. Once the police get in here, we can find out more accurate time of death on Kevin. We can find out what Garcia died us...the tape."

"What?" asked Morgan.

"The video tape of the interrogation room. Someone took it."

"Yes?"

"What did they do with it?"

"Wouldn't they have just destroyed it?"

"Would they have had time? We're talking about a very narrow time frame here."

"Where would they have hidden it?"

"We could look for it," suggested JJ.

"I don't think we should split up again," said Prentiss.

"No, but we could look together as a group," suggested Reid.

"Hey man, anything would be better then just sitting here," said Morgan, "Wondering which person here is killing us."

Several eyes glanced down at Rossi's body.

"Alright," nodded Hotch. "But we stick very close together. And _no one_ ever strays out of eye contact of at least two people." Everyone nodded. They rose to their feet.

"We might as well start in here," said Emily. She knelt to the floor and checked under the couch.

x-x-x-x-x

They searched Hotch's office, pulling open desk drawers, looking under the couch, behind the curtains. Morgan watched from the doorway, his gaze never leaving Garcia. They searched though Rossi's office and they searched the back storage area, though as Prentiss pointed out, it could easily have been back there and they'd miss it, they searched the interrogation room, though without much hope of finding it there, and then pulled open the all the desk drawers in the bullpen. The last place they checked were the bathrooms, first the ladies' and then the mens'. It was as Morgan pushed open the last stall door that he let out the exclamation. He reached down, picked something up, and then he turned towards the rest of the team, holding the cassette.

"What do you know, someone really thought of everything."

"What do you mean?" asked Hotch.

"The film's been pulled out of it. My guess is whoever let Malcolm, gave him this to destroy. They not only set up Malcolm to be a distraction, they used Malcolm to destroy the evidence that they'd done it. It's why Malcolm was hiding in the bathroom. My guess, he flushed the film down the toilet."

Hotch sighed and opened his mouth to comment, when his cell phone rang he pulled it out and answered.

"Hotch...alright. We'll go by the doors and wait." He hung up and looked at the others. "Strauss. She said security just called up to say the locksmith is here. He's coming up. The doors should be open soon."

With an air that was somewhere between relieved and weary, what remained of team slowly walked out into the bullpen to stand before the glass doors. They each stood a little apart from the others, JJ leaned against the wall, next to the doors, Morgan sat opposite her on top of a desk, a little behind him Reid sat in a chair staring at the floor. Hotch and Emily stood directly facing the glass doors, a desk between them.

On the opposite side of the doors Strauss stood, staring at them, the man who had come to pick up Richards, was talking to two of the policemen, Hotch thought he made out a gleam of curiosity in the man's face as he gestured towards the office. Hotch felt revolted.

Aaron sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He felt old. He felt tired. He felt done. Strauss would get her wish. After this, he couldn't lead the team. It was over.

"I need a drink," said Emily abruptly. "I could use some of Rossi's Scotch."

"Better not," said Hotch, "We'll be out soon, you can get something then."

"Yeah right, after the police finish interrogating us for hours."

"That Scotch is the last thing Garcia drank. It could have been poisoned."

"I almost feel ready to play the odds," she murmured. She glanced at him, and then frowned. "What is it?"

Hotch's mouth was frowning, his arms crossed. There was something there in the back of his mind, gnawing, trying to come to the surface. Something, some word had jostled, just enough to grab his attention. What was it? _What was it?_ "The Scotch."

"What?"

"Wait here." He hurried over to Morgan. "Derek," he spoke softly, but urgently. Morgan looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"When we were all saying what we'd done during the time we found Kevin and the time we discovered the doors were locked, you said you went to get a drink from Dave's Scotch, and that no one saw you."

"That's right."

"So no one came in, while you were there?"

"No."

"How long do you think you were in the office?"

Morgan shrugged. "About five minutes."

"And after that?"

"I went back to the conference room, and waited there with Reid and Rossi, who had also just come back, until the police came."

"Thank-you." Hotch started to turn.

"What is this about?"

"I'll explain in a minute."

"But-"

"Trust me." Hotch hurried back to Prentiss.

"What?" she asked, as he approached her.

"Someone's lying."

"Who?"

"I don't know. But it's one of two people. Someone wasn't where they said they were, which means that someone has to be the one that released Richards and locked the doors. Which means they're the killer."

"Who?"

"Be ready with your gun."

"Who is it?"

"I think you're going to need it."

Hotch stepped forward into the center of the room. "Derek, can I have your weapon please?"

Derek, stood up from the desk. "Why?"

"I want your weapon."

"What's going on Hotch?

Hotch hesitated. He glanced out the glass doors. This could wait, he could tell what he knew to the police in just a few minute. But what about Garcia? What about Kevin? What about Dave? He felt angry. He wanted the truth and he wanted it now. They both had their weapons at their sides. But so did he. And he was feeling furious enough to take the risk.

"Derek, you said, that after Kevin died, when we came back into the office, when you and Reid and Rossi were in the conference room, that you went to get a drink from Dave's Scotch."

"Yes, I already told you that."

"And you say no one else came into the office while you were there."

"Yes."

"_But JJ went to get the Scotch bottle."_

Hotch noticed out of the corner of his eye that JJ had straightened up. Derek looked between JJ and Hotch.

"I went and got a drink, I don't know, maybe she came after I was gone."

"You said you were there for five minutes, she went right after I called the police. Even if you went to get your drink first, she would have come into Rossi's office while you were there, if she went first there would have been no Scotch for you to drink. The bottle would have been in my office."

"I don't understand, look I was there! I went and got a drink!"

"How do we know that?"

"Look I'm telling you-"

"I'm not saying you're lying...but I am saying that one of you is."

"The bottle is in your office," said JJ calmly, "Clearly I got it."

Hotch looked to Prentiss. "How long was it before JJ came back?"

"I...don't know," said Prentiss quietly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. It seemed a little while but I wasn't paying attention. I was just thinking, watching Penelope I-,...I don't know how long it was."

"Yes," admitted JJ, "I took a moment. You needed time Hotch, so did I, I took a minute or two in Rossi's office just to gather myself. That's all."

"Except one of you is lying," said Hotch, looking from Morgan to JJ.

There was a long silence.

"Where were you?" asked Reid, the question came abruptly, both shattering the ugly stillness of the room and confusing. Everyone looked at him. Reid explained, "When I was shot, Emily and Rossi were with me, Hotch and Morgan ran after Richards, I know you showed up to patch me up, but where were you between the shooting, and when you were there in the conference room with the first aid kit?"

"I watched from the conference room," said JJ, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Why do you ask?" Hotch asked Reid.

"Well the next time we saw Garcia, she was dead. From that point onwards we were all together-"

"And Derek was alone with her, right before the shooting!" exclaimed JJ.

"I didn't kill her!" yelled Morgan.

"Calm down both of you right now!" ordered Hotch.

"You went to your office," said Emily slowly, looking at JJ. "After the police came, when Strauss was up here, when the janitors were looking for the key and right before we discovered Malcolm Richards had escaped, you were in your office. Morgan and Reid were both in the conference room. Derek even checked in on Garcia. Rossi and Hotch were here in front of the doors and I was with Penelope. But you were in your office. That would have given you plenty of time to put the bomb together. And then if you knew Malcolm Richards was escaped and Eastlake dead, you would have known that as soon as it was discovered we would all be called to the conference room and that we would all have been distracted and you could easily sneak the bomb and hide if somewhere...maybe by the window, behind a curtain."

Out of the corner of his eye, Hotch noticed the elevator doors open and a man, he assumed to be the locksmith stepping out and being approached by Strauss.

Emily was continuing. "The bomb wouldn't have had to be well-hidden since none of us suspected that. And you were by the window...after we finished searching the office for anyone else hiding here. You were standing by the window and the last to sit down...right before you sat down next to Rossi, which would have made it very easy to slip the bomb under his chair."

"Reid was sitting next to him too!" said JJ.

"Yes, but Reid didn't lie about what he did between finding Kevin and the police coming," said Hotch

"Neither am I!"

"Either you or Derek are."

"Then why not him!" she yelled.

"I'm considered it...but right now things aren't pointing that way."

"'_Or maybe they thought they didn't need an ally?'"_ Again everyone looked at Reid, confused. "I'm sorry," said Reid, clearing his throat, "That's just what JJ said. When we were wondering why the killer had just murdered him and not used him. JJ said, 'Maybe they thought they didn't need an ally?'"

"Which isn't a normal thing for you to say," said Hotch looking at the woman in question.

"Reid agreed with me!"

"Yes, but you said it. It was surprising you knew it...so readily. You're good, and on many occasions you've proven that you would make an excellent profiler..." Hotch hesitated. If they were right...if JJ...then all he'd have to do was push. He decided. "But that's insight we'd come up with. No an amateur. Not a _liaison_."

JJ moved so quickly, as she pulled her weapon, Hotch barely kept up. He heard Emily's footstep as she came forward, saw her gun pointed at JJ too, he glanced over at Morgan, he too had his gun drawn.

Hotch gripped his weapon. JJ's was pointed right at him. He looked at her calmly, his own pointed dead center on her.

"A liaison? Well Aaron Hotchner a _liaison_ killed the great and famous David Rossi!"

"You've actually always been very smart, you've always had deep insights into people and both in your capacity as a liaison, choosing our cases and the invaluable help you have always given us on our cases have always been a valued member of this team...until now. I needed to get a rise out of you to know the truth," he said simply, "If you were the killer, based on Reid's profile of the motivation it was going to make you angry and very likely cause you to boast about the murders."

Outside the glass doors, Strauss was standing over the poor locksmith, as he worked furiously to open the doors, the policemen stood, guns drawn, ready to into the office as soon the doors were unlocked. JJ smiled.

"You think you're smart don't you? Well you're not. Look how many people I've killed and you couldn't stop me."

"What do you call this? It darn well looks like stopping to me," said Morgan.

"I've destroyed this team. I didn't kill quite as many as I would have liked, but this will never be a team again. And destruction of spirit can be even more deadly then destruction of life."

"What did you do?" asked Hotch quietly. "You killed Kevin, when we was going up to meet Garcia?"

"Yes. I told him I needed to talk to him about her. I knew he was coming, I waited for him and then I took him to the stairwell and killed him and then came back up here and waited in my office for us to find him. I almost thought there, when we were leaving, that you'd be too stupid. But Derek found him."

"And then while we waited for the police you locked the doors."

"The moment I left your office I went to Eastlake and killed him. And then went and explained I few things to Malcolm, undid his handcuffs, and gave him the video tape to destroy. Rossi almost saw me leaving the interrogation room, after your call, but I just managed to see him coming back into the office, and I ducked back in. Lucky he came. He could have almost missed everything."

"You locked the doors then?'

"Yes. Keep you all in here so I could kill you."

"And what did you to do to Garcia?"

"Spence got it. When you and Derek were running after Malcolm and the others were down I the bullpen looking after Spencer's gunshot wound, I quickly went into your office, and gave Penelope an injection, a very high overdose of a sedative, she was probably dead in under five minutes. Then as you all passed the door, I slipped out and followed into the conference room. You didn't even notice."

"And then you took the bomb and slipped it under Rossi's seat when you sat next to him."

"Yes. Emily explained that. I've been sneaking the pieces into the office for several weeks now. I only just had to put them together tonight."

"And Malcolm _was_ just a distraction...just like we said...just to confuse us, keep us from figuring out at first it was one of us, _one of our own,_ that was doing all this?"

JJ smiled. "Oh I'm not one of you. I'm better. I'm smarter. And tonight proved it."

The glass doors swung open and the policemen burst in. JJ turned her gun on them and Hotch took the shot.

x-x-x-x-x

"They think she'll be fine," said Strauss, as she stood outside with the four agents, watching the ambulance pull away. "She'll stand trial for this."

Hotch blinked, and looked at Strauss but did not respond.

Erin sighed, "Alright. It's late. Go home. This is a mess, and I don't know what's going to happen and what this means. For any of us. But we can sort the whole tangled mess out tomorrow." She hesitated a minute more and then turned and walked away towards her car.

Hotch took a deep breath and looked at his three remaining team members. Morgan and Reid both looked as shell-shocked as he felt. But Prentiss smiled reassuringly.

"You know," she said, putting her arm through Morgan's and Hotch's and smiling at Reid. "I think she's going to be wrong."

"What?" asked Morgan.

"JJ. She said she'd destroyed this team. Somehow I think not."

"A lot's happened here tonight-" said Hotch.

"A lot's happened in the entire life of this team. And we've changed, and we've grown, and we've lost people. But we're still a team...and we're still more then that. We never turned on each other tonight. We knew one of us did this, but we never yelled, throwing accusations around. We were betrayed and we were hurt. But ultimately we were not defeated. We didn't turn on each other. I think we have a future yet."

Hotch smiled.

Reid did as well, but it halfway through it turned into a yaw.

"I think we should take Strauss's advice," said Hotch. "I think we should go home and get some sleep."

"Actually," said Morgan, "I could really use a drink."

"I am so with you on that," concurred Emily.

"Alright," said Hotch, "Let's go...as a team."

"As a team," she agreed.

_Author's Note: And now that the story is over, Anonamus-A, you should know, you saved Reid's life :-). He was going to be a victim, probably instead of, or around the time of Rossi, but you gave the first review, and it was nice, and you gave a follow up review, and so I decided not kill Reid. :-)_


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